UN Secretary General Guterres speaks of lawlessness in Gaza. Many people die in a tent city after an attack. More information in the news blog.
1.55 am: There has been renewed mutual shooting on Israel’s border with Lebanon. In response to repeated attacks on areas in northern Israel, the Israeli army said it carried out air strikes on Friday against positions of the pro-Iranian Shiite militia Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the military announced in the evening. Previously, attacks from Lebanon had taken place on areas in northern Israel. There were no reports of injuries, it said. The information could not initially be independently verified. Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, there have been daily military confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah in the border area between Israel and Lebanon. There have been deaths on both sides.
Hezbollah is allied with the Islamist Hamas in Gaza, but is considered to be significantly more powerful. Israel wants to use military and diplomatic pressure to get Hezbollah to withdraw behind the Litani River, 30 kilometers from the border – as stipulated in a 2006 UN resolution. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the conflicting parties on Friday to implement the resolution and to cease hostilities. The danger of the conflict in the Middle East escalating is “real.”
1.10 am: According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, chaos and lawlessness in the contested Gaza Strip are preventing the distribution of humanitarian aid in the sealed-off coastal area. There is “total lawlessness,” Guterres complained on Friday in New York. There are “extreme difficulties in distributing” aid supplies in Gaza, trucks are being looted. The problem is not just getting aid supplies to Gaza. “There must be a mechanism in place that guarantees a minimum level of law and order so that distribution can take place,” Guterres demanded. He therefore again called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas.
The UN Secretary General also expressed his “deep concern” about the escalation of the conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. The danger of an expansion of the conflict in the Middle East is “real” and must be avoided. Since the war in the Gaza Strip began more than eight months ago, there have been daily military confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah in the border area between Israel and Lebanon. There have been deaths on both sides. The mutual shelling has caused severe destruction in towns on both sides of the border. Around 150,000 people have been evacuated or left the combat zone.
0.55 am: According to the British Maritime Trade Organization UKMTO, a merchant ship reported an explosion in its vicinity. The incident occurred 126 nautical miles east of the Yemeni port city of Aden. The ship is on its way to the nearest port. The crew is safe.
18:57: According to Palestinian sources, at least 24 people were killed in an attack attributed to Israel on a tent camp for war refugees near the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. Another 47 Palestinians were injured, according to the Health Ministry, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas.
The incident occurred on Friday in Al-Mawasi near Rafah, where many people fled after the Israeli military began its offensive in the refugee-filled town on the border with Egypt in early May. Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli tank shells hit the tent camp completely unexpectedly.
The information could not initially be independently verified. When asked, the Israeli military said it was investigating the reports.
17:41: UN Secretary-General António Guterres is concerned about the increasing tensions between Israel and the radical Islamic Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. “One ill-considered act – one miscalculation – could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border,” he told journalists. “The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford for Lebanon to become a second Gaza Strip.”
